Monday, May 5, 2014

mud. rain. & eternal families 4/28/2014

Hey fam bam! how is everyone?! hopefully super good and super awesome because there's no reason to be sad!

We
had transfers this week and got to go into the city! it was crazy how
busy it was, i've gotten so used to this small little town! We got to
see the arch (just see it, not go in it or anything) and busch stadium!
Transfer meeting was so fun because i got to see sister Amos! (my mtc
comp) She is so great. It was sad saying bye to sister Huppi but I knew
we wouldn't be together forever and she is needed in her new area! My
new companion is sister Leavitt! She's from Bunkerville, Nevada (its in
the news right now, a bunch of cow business or something) but she has
two transfers left and is a super hard worker! she wants to finish out
her mission really strong, and what better place to do that than in the
Centralia ward?!

But we've had a pretty good
first week together! We made a goal that we want to baptize a family
this transfer. and guess what? we're teaching THREE families! what the
heck! The Lord answers prayers! it's so great. Whenever we meet with
them you can just see them progressing towards becoming an eternal
family. and what greater joy could you have to not only live with your
family again but God also. and to have that sealed on this Earth by the
priesthood!? what more could you want in life?! no seriously, like try
to answer that question because i honestly don't think there's an
answer.

One of the families we are
teaching is the Felix and Shawna! they have 5 daughters and they're so
fun. I think I might have told you about them last week so this is
probably just an update, but they are amazing. And they totally felt the
spirit at church yesterday!

This past week we had a few moments where luck was just not on our side..

moment number one:

We
wanted to go visit a less active who live out in the forest. no i'm
serious, she literally lives in a forest with no houses within 3 miles
of her. so we typed her address into the GPS and start driving. well,
the GPS wanted us to drive through a corn field road (a road that is
made for tractors) well it didn't look tooooo bad, so we decided to go
for it. That lasted for about 20 feet before we were completely stuck in
the mud. so a member came and picked us up and 4 hours later the bishop
had to get his tractor out there to pull the car out. (that means
bishop had to drive the tractor on the road, hilarious). we are okay,
the car is okay and we learned a lesson:

if the GPS tells you to drive through a corn field. don't do it.

moment number two:

we accidently left the windows cracked open during church. and it rained. awe$ome.

and of course I learned something this week!

So
Elder Holland gave a talk in Price Utah and he talked a lot about "just
getting big" and he says over and over how the church needs people who
are ready to stand up and lead. theres a part in it where he talks about
how God loves broken things. and let me tell you, it's true. a lot of
the times we meet people who will tell us they are too broken for God to
love them. we were talking to someone the other day and this is how our
conversation went

them: I used to think God loved me but now i've done too much, I just know He never would"

me: well how do you think you can change that?

them: I'm not really sure..

me: you need to repent

them: *kind of laughing* nahh, he wouldn't care.

me: no seriously, you need to repent because He does love you, even now. you just don't know it yet.

after
walking away from them, i just thought "what the heck, did i just
straight up tell someone to repent?" but then I remembered that i did
because the spirit told me to. and that's okay because if Christ were
there, He probably would've said the same thing. Nothing will change in
someones life until they decide to, and sometimes that comes from being
called to repentance. and that's part of a missionaries purpose. no that
doesn't mean i'm going to go running around Salem, Illinois calling
people to repentance. but I will if the spirit prompts me to and if it
is out of complete compassion, because that is how the gospel changes
lives. through complete repentance and compassion. and it is okay if we
are a little broken, but that brokeness whether it be a broken heart or
broken family because through Christ, it can be made whole again. Elder
Holland then says how it is brokeness that makes us whole: